In this evolving exhibition, art that has recently been acquired by the Whitworth is placed in dialogue with selected works from the existing collection.

Our collection of drawings, prints, paintings and sculpture has historically favoured white male artists, reflecting the traditional narrative of Western art history. In our collecting today, we are trying to rectify the historic imbalance between white male artists and other artists who have been sidelined because they are female, non-white, non-Western, LGBTQ+ or marginalised due to mental health or physical disability.

In Exchanges, recent acquisitions are presented alongside archival documents, showing how what we collect today strives to reflect our society as a whole, rather than a small fraction of it.

THE RENO AT THE WHITWORTHMar 15, 2019 - Mar 1, 2020For a period of one year Linda Brogan and a group of local residents, who went to the Reno nightclub in the 1970s and 80s, will occupy the Whitworth.

JOY FOR EVER : HOW TO USE ART TO CHANGE THE WORLDMar 29 - Jun 9, 2019Private view Thu Mar 28 6pm - 8pmThis exhibition responds to the 200th birthday of artist, art critic and social reformer John Ruskin with a joyful look at how to use art for social change.
Joy for Ever combines the Whitworth’s renowned collection of art and design (itself founded in the 19th Century on Ruskinesque thinking) with archival documents, contemporary installations, a cast of the wall of Westminster Hall, a road building, politics, pictures, a protest on the EBacc by local school children and commissions from Manchester-based design studio Standard Practice and Grizedale Arts from the Lake District. Artists include Helen Allingham, James Hey Davies, Aikaterini Gegisian, Kelly Jayne Jones, William Morris, Jorge Otero-Pailos, John Piper, Samuel Prout, Emily Gertrude Thomson, J.M.W.Turner, William Ward.

ANCIENT TEXTILES FROM THE ANDESMar 29 - Sep 15, 2019Private view Thu Mar 28 6pm - 8pmThis is a rare opportunity to see ancient Andean textiles of this quality and size exhibited in the UK. Through a major loan from the collector Paul Hughes, alongside pieces from the Whitworth, textiles from c300BC to c1400AD are on display. As well as celebrating breath-taking achievements in textile technique and design, this show explores the complexities of their transition from local ritual to a wider international stage. Vitally, acknowledging the human origins of these objects (from tombs and often from bodies themselves) they are part of a programme of debate about ethics, how objects are contextualised and the impact of conservation on how we understand them.

LI YUAN CHIA: UNIQUE PHOTOGRAPHSMay 18 - Dec 15, 2019In his lifetime, Li Yuan Chia (1929-1994) travelled from China, to Taiwan, Bologna and London but found his home in a house that he bought in 1972 from Winifred Nicholson in Banks at the far north of Cumbria on Hadrian’s Wall. Now regarded as China’s first conceptual artist, Li Yuan Chia made this house into the LYC Museum and Art Gallery - a place for showing innovative art alongside children’s workshops and his own experimental work.

MIF19Jul 4 - 12, 2019Private view Thu Jul 4 6am - 8pmManchester International Festival returns this summer, and its city-wide programme will include major new works at the Whitworth. Full details will be announced in March at mif.co.uk